This invention relates to gauges and more particularly to a stone and mounting gauge for use in the jewelry industry and for the manufacture of jewelry.
An extremely important and useful instrument in the jewelry industry is a gauge which can be used to measure the size of a setting and determine the stone size required in such setting as well as the measurement of the stone itself. In selecting a stone to fit a particular setting contained in a jewelry mounting, it is necessary to measure the size of the setting and determine the appropriate size stone that will properly fit within the mounting. An improper measurement can cause the wrong selection of stone resulting in difficulties to properly mount the stone in the particular piece of jewelry. In many situations the setting is situated in an elaborate mounting which makes it awkward to reach the setting and utilize standard calipers, micrometers, or other standard measuring tools.
To specifically accommodate the jewelry industry and facilitate the measuring of setting, there has been developed in the prior art a unique type of stone and mounting gauge specifically designed for the jewelry industry. Such gauges generally include a flat sheet of metal or plastic which is stamped to include individual heads extending from a circular main portion by protruding necks. The heads are flat and lie in the same plane as the center portion, the entire instrument being of a single flat sheet. In use, the heads are placed over the mounting and utilizing the naked eye, or with the aid of a jewelers eyepiece, an estimate is made of the setting size by comparison to one of these heads.
Because the heads are flat and are interconnected by neck portions to a central member, they cannot be passed into the mounting itself. As a result, only estimates can be made of the setting size. Furthermore, when the setting is recessed within an elaborate mounting and the gauging tool must be spaced from the mounting itself, parallax errors may occur in the measurement. Such errors, although they only may be slight in actual size measurement, can be very costly when dealing in precious jewels. The selection of a jewel size even slightly larger than one actually needed can add unnecessary cost to a particular piece of jewelry.
Additionally, jewelry mountings often consist of multiple settings of many different sizes. To determine the proper stones to fit into the individual settings would require an assortment of different sized stones. These stones would need to be available during the finishing of the mounting for proper selection of stone size. However, because of the large supply required it is quite possible to lose some of the stones.